Gotham Season 1 episode 13 "Welcome Back, Jim Gordon" review

How Far Gone?

We last left James Gordon being reinstated after defeating Gotham's first super villain, the Electricutioner. It's time for Gotham's White Knight to get back to work. We also see that Fish's plan has come undone as Penguin revealed the truth of Liza to Falcone. As punishment, Fish's side of the crime family is decimated. All who is left is Butch and Fish. They were wheeled off to be tortured, and Penguin was given Fish's club as a reward for his loyalty towards Falcone. Let's just say things have escalated quite quickly in the last two episodes. Though we don't see our cops and crooks' storylines really cross paths as I was hoping in the end of last week, this episode was able to still have me raise my eyebrow a few times in interest.





Characters

Acting is never an issue when it comes to Gotham in my opinion. Everyone tends to play their parts well // Fish and Butch were definitely the pair that kept my interest in the episode. It is great to see how far they've fallen, yet still have each others' backs. Butch truly has proven he would go to hell and back to protect his boss with this episode and Rogues' Gallery. That being said my main complaint with the episode is that there was quite a few missed opportunities for character development across the board.  The kids have returned to Gotham, however, as much as I wish to praise them as I have in the past, I honestly cannot this week. Selina had come off as too  devious (yes, she already was but not to much of a jerk) and Bruce came off as a little clingy. Now, of course this would make sense for a loner like Selina, but Bruce only gave her a single gift, and when she says no, he bawls like a baby. Also, we finally meet the corrupt Detective Flass. When I heard Gotham first being made, I was thinking of the charismatic violent detective we see in Batman Year One. I could not wait to see the dynamics between him and the moralistic Gordon. They rushed him in and out so quickly, I honestly felt ripped off. To those who never read Batman Year One, Flass was actually Jim's partner, so to see the interactions I mentioned before just torn out of the episode and the character, just bothered the heck out of me.

Story

A lot of the progress of the episode felt rushed. They could have expanded certain actions over several episodes, but crammed it into about an hour. This is a spoiler, but I'm doing it to make a point. Fish's "torture" is actually three small scenes and the worse we see is a bag over her face. This could have been the transformation we were looking for! It was built up as this big event that would irrevocably change Fish. In the end, it was just passed over like business as usual, and it me ticked off. 
On the cop side, we see Gordon trying to solve a pair of murders relating to a drug trade, but more so one that happens RIGHT IN THE GCPD! This crime was solved very quickly, but it isn't until the end when we get its conclusion. It is obvious who the murderer is, a cop, but the issue at hand is the question of how we get the culprit without stirring a hornets nest? In the end, we get a moment of yay and a moment of nay. The moment of yay left me smiling and gave me hope for the GCPD, but the nay was so much more interesting. It showed that even a White Knight can get his armor a little dirty in the pursuit of justice.

Final Verdict
This episode is rushed, but just because it felt forced doesn't mean it was all bad. There were so many character moments that could have been made for the future of the show, but they wasted in their speedy run to the end. The best part of this episode was definitely the two moments I mentioned before which saved the partially episode for me. In the end, this week's story was the misstep I was worried about happening because they are rushing through characters and storylines much to quickly. On the other hand, perhaps the writers are planning something to surprise us hence us them rushing through the storyline.

So what did you think of the episode? What did you think of the episode? Leave a comment and I'll see ya all next time!